DA proposes land reform steps

2008-10-30 20:16

Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance on Thursday proposed several measures to Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana to give impetus to land reform.

DA spokesperson Kraai van Niekerk said land affairs director-general Tozi Gwanya had admitted on Wednesday that the department would not be able to reach the target of redistributing 30% of agricultural land to black farmers by 2014.

Thus, the DA had written to Xingwana urging her to consider the proposals, which if adopted, would help ensure that meaningful progress was made in attaining the target - if not in 2014, then as close as possible to that deadline.

The proposals included the department becoming an active player in the land sale market.

Every year around 4% of privately owned land came onto the market - even if only half of this land were purchased by the state, great strides would be taken in reaching the target.

Secondly, market-related compensations had to be paid to former land owners, which would encourage others to put their land on sale.

Public utterances, such as threats by officials to abandon the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle, only served to foster animosity.

The state should also release the many hectares of land it held to emerging farmers.

It was estimated that only 33% of state land was audited, and an urgent audit of all state land was necessary.

Finally, the state should ensure that land reform beneficiaries were not given land without the necessary skills to work the land.

This could be achieved by such win-win arrangements as those in which land claimants leased their land to the former owner to allow a gradual transfer of skills to the new land owners.

"These are suggestions which we will communicate directly to the minister which, and if implemented, will give our land reform programme the impetus it urgently needs in order to get back on track," Van Niekerk said.

The DA fully supported a sustainable, equitable and just land reform process.

"We view land reform not only as a moral imperative to correct past racial injustices, but also as a fundamental condition to achieving political stability and economic growth," he said.

- SAPA